How to Be an Infamous Underground Writer | Mickey Z.

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Photo credit: Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

June 19, 2015

“Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink.” (Bukowski)

You know those despicable and “agreed-upon” societal standards of “beauty”? Yeah, those. Well, imagine a woman who embodies what’s widely and sadly accepted as the “ugly” range of that specious spectrum. “Ugly as sin,” as the hateful saying goes.

Now imagine this woman came of age in 1950s America and during that time she wore her love of liquor like a badge; couldn’t hold a job; barely, if ever, paid the rent on any of her filthy flophouse apartments; regularly engaged in drunken brawls that ended with her either in an ambulance or handcuffed in the backseat of an LAPD cruiser; and unashamedly neglected her only child.

Let’s also imagine this woman fancied herself a writer -- a street poet, if you will. Her work was sometimes profound but just as often, was rife with images -- sometimes violent images -- of homophobia, anti-semitism, racism, misogyny, and a general vibe of misanthropy.

Do any of you believe a woman such as this could’ve ever attained underground credibility as a poet by the 1960s, credibility which would ultimately -- after she’d passed the age of 50 -- result in a literary press offering her a monthly stipend so she could concentrate solely on her craft?

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